Page 20 - Climate Control News Magazine April 2021

Refrigerant Feature
High level of interest in R454B
GERMAN RESEARCH
The German government is providing
$A23.1 million (€15m) to fund research into refrigeration and energy technology.
The funding will be used to undertake research into refrigerants and storage materials including the development of chillers, heat pumps and dry coolers as well as heat and cold storage.
Funding will go to the Chemnitz University of Technology, the Institute for Air and Refrigeration Technology Dresden and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.
The project is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research from March 2021 to April 2025 as part of the federal government’s 7th energy research program.
Parliamentary state secretary Thomas Rachel said the goal is to set international standards for resource-saving refrigeration and energy technology through this promising project.
HONEYWELL IS OFFERING
the lower GWP R410A replace- ment R454B.
Honeywell will market the refrigerant as Solstice 454B. It is also offered by Chemours as Opteon XL41.
At the same time, Trane said its current portfolio of R410A chill- ers, heat pumps and rooftop units will be made available withA2LrefrigerantR454B.
Trane is set to introduce R454B across its scroll compressor portfolio, in- cluding its Airfinity roof- tops and Sintesis, Con- quest and Flex2O chillers and heat pumps.
The Chemours refriger- ant is a blend of R32 and R1234yf with a GWP of 466.
According to Trane, R454B provides better cooling/heating capacity
than R410A, and its R454B versions will be one to five per cent more efficient than its legacy products.
The high level of interest in R454B shows that it is proving to be a good option for
new equipment.
Honeywell said the dis-
charge temperature of R454Bismuchlowerthan R32 and, thanks to its higher critical tempera- ture (77°C) and broader operating envelope in low evaporating tem- peratures, it outper- forms other alternatives such as R32 in heating
applications.
The discharge temperature of R454B is
much lower than R32.
National emissions at record lows
THE LATEST NATIONAL Greenhouse Gas In- ventory data shows a 4.4 per cent decline in emis- sions in the year to September 2020.
Emissions were 510.1 million tonnes – 4.4 per cent or 23.3 million tonnes lower than in 2019.
Minister for Emissions Reduction, Angus Tay- lor, said this is the lowest level since 1995.
“Australia’s emissions are now 19.0 per cent below 2005 levels, the baseline year for our 2030 Paris Agreement target,” he said.
Taylor said these results reflect significant long-term structural declines in emissions from the electricity and agriculture sectors, and a temporary decline in emissions from agriculture (due to the drought) and transport (due to coro- navirus restrictions).
He said in the year to December 2020, emis- sions in the national electricity market fell 5.6 per cent to a new record low.
“The continuing structural decline in emis- sions from electricity is driven by Australia’s world leading deployment of solar and wind,” he said.
“Since 2017, Australia has invested $35 billion in renewables and we are continuing to deploy
new solar and wind 10 times faster than the glob- al per person average.”
The production of exports for overseas mar- kets generates 38.6 per cent of Australia’s total emissions.
Climate Council senior researcher, Tim Bax- ter, said the federal government can take zero credit for these figures.
Baxter said the states and territories have once again done the heavy lifting on reducing Australia’s emissions while the federal govern- ment continues to confuse a pandemic for cli- mate action.
“COVID-19 has impacted our economy and transport sector dramatically, while emissions reductions in the electricity sec- tor are due to state and territory-led wind and solar projects coming online in recent months,” he said.
RIGHT: Minister for Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor.
FAR RIGHT: Climate Council senior researcher, Tim Baxter.
“Every state and territory has a net zero emis- sions target, and is embracing clean, affordable renewable energy to get there. The federal gov- ernment should be supporting this change in- stead of planning to spend billions of public dol- lars on unnecessary gas projects.”
Baxter said the federal government cannot rely on a pandemic to keep its emissions suppressed.
“We need a national commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2040 at the latest,” he said.
The government is investing $18 billion over the next 10 years to leverage $70 billion of invest- ment in low emissions technologies.
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